Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union (often called Council of Ministers or just Council) is one of the three organisations that manage the European Union. Along with the European Parliament, it is responsible for law making for the European Union (EU).

Its members are the government ministers of the member countries who are responsible for the law that is being discussed. As an example, suppose the law is going to be about farming, then the Agriculture Ministers are the council for that day.

As well as making laws, they can meet to discuss their problems. For example, the European Union does not decide on tax - each country decides on its own tax. But the Finance Ministers meet anyway because sometimes they can help each other catch people who do not want to pay tax at all.

The council is called different things in different countries, according to the language they speak (for example in French it is Conseil de l'Union Européenne and in German it is Rat der Europäischen Union). It is also known internationally, and so it appears on its logo, with the Latin word Consilium.

A simple way of putting it, is that The 'Council of the European Union' is helped by most countries in the world and it is very important.